Free Grace Broadcaster presents

THE TRIUNE G OD.

A
COLLECTION OF ESSAYS

ON THE TRINITY
BY
VARIOUS CHRISTIAN WRITERS
Issue 231

Edited by: jeffperado

BNOresearch Press
Chapel Library does not necessarily endorse
all
the doctrinal views of the authors it
publishes.

Copyright ©2015 Chapel Library:

compilation, annotations.
 Contents

The Most Mysterious Doctrine

Loraine Boettner (1901-1990): the Christian faith rests upon the
revelation of the Triune God, but it is the most difficult and
mysterious doctrine of that faith. How are we to understand it?
Overview of the Trinity
William S. Plumer (1802-1880): a concise survey of and introduction
to the mysterious doctrine of the Triune God.
One Essence, Three Persons
Wilhelmus á Brakel (1635-1711): the key to a biblical understanding
of God is the proper balance between God’s essence as spirit and
God’s existence as three persons.
The Doctrine Unfolded
Loraine Boettner (1901-1990): how does one explain the weighty
and challenging doctrine of the Trinity? This readable exposition
begins with God’s nature and then describes the biblical evidence
for the one God Who exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
Divine Order in the Godhead
Loraine Boettner (1901-1990): an important discussion of the
relationship between the persons of the Trinity.
A Foundational Doctrine
Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952): an examination of how the doctrine of
the Trinity relates to other vital doctrines of Scripture.
A Profitable Doctrine
Wilhelmus á Brakel (1635-1711): can such a profound, mysterious
doctrine be practical to a Christian?
Communion with the Trinity
John Owen (1616-1683): an introduction to the meaning of
communion with God and to the communion the believer may have
with each of the divine persons of the Godhead.
Trinitarian Salvation
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892): a biblical correction to the idea
that Jesus is our Savior to the exclusion of the other persons of the
Trinity.
Endnotes
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 The Most Mysterious Doctrine
Loraine Boettner (1901-1990)

The doctrine of the Trinity is perhaps the most

mysterious and difficult doctrine that is presented to us in
the entire range of Scripture. Consequently, we do not
presume to give a full explanation of it. In the nature of
the case, we can know only as much concerning the inner
nature of the Godhead as has been revealed to us in the
Scriptures.
The tri-personality of God is exclusively a truth of
revelation,1 and one that lies outside the realm of natural
reason. Its height and depth and length and breadth are
immeasurable by reason of the fact that the finite is
dealing with the Infinite. As well might we expect to
confine the ocean within a teacup as to place a full
explanation of the nature of God within the limits of our
feeble human minds…We do hope, however, that under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit we shall be enabled to set
forth the truth concerning it in a plain, simple way—yet as
fully as the limitations of our finite minds and language
will permit—and to guard it against the errors and
heresies that have prevailed at one time or another in the
history of the Church…
Since in the study of this doctrine we are absolutely
dependent on revelation (there being nothing else quite
similar to or analogous2 with it in our own consciousness
or in the material world), and since the subject of our
study is transcendently3 sacred—that subject being the
innermost nature of the infinitely righteous and
transcendent God—our attitude should be that of
disciples who, with true humility and reverence, are ready
to receive implicitly whatever God has seen fit to reveal.
Since God is the Creator, Preserver, and final Disposer of
all things, the One in Whom we live and move and have
our being (Act 17:28), our knowledge of Him must be
basic and fundamental to all our knowledge. In answer to
the question, “What is God?”, the Scriptures reveal Him to
us in the first place as a rational 4 and righteous Spirit,
infinite in His attributes of wisdom, being, power,
holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. In the second
place, they reveal Him to us as One Who exists eternally
as three “persons,” these three persons, however, being
one in substance and existing in the most perfect unity of
thought and purpose. It is evident, moreover, that if God
does thus exist in three persons, each of Whom has His
distinctive part in the works of creation, providence,
redemption, and grace, that fact governs His activity in all
spheres of His work and, consequently, the doctrine that
treats of the nature of His person must seriously affect all
true theology and philosophy. Doctrines vital to the
Christian system, such as those of the deity and person of
Christ,5 the incarnation, the atonement, etc., are so
inextricably6 interwoven with that of the tri-unity of God
that they cannot be properly understood apart from it.
We should notice that the doctrine of the Trinity is the
distinctive mark of the Christian religion, setting it apart
from all the other religions of the world. Working without
the benefit of the revelations made in Scripture, men
have, it is true, arrived at some limited truths concerning
the nature and person of God. The pagan religions, as
well as all philosophical speculations, are based on
natural religion and can, therefore, rise to no higher
conception than that of the unity of God. In some
systems, we find monotheism7 with its belief in only one
God. In others, we find polytheism 8 with its belief in many
separate gods. But none of the pagan religions nor any of
the systems of speculative philosophy have ever arrived
at a trinitarian conception of God. The fact of the matter
is that apart from supernatural revelation there is nothing
in human consciousness or experience that can give man
the slightest clue to the distinctive God of the Christian
faith—the triune, incarnate, redeeming, sanctifying God…
It may be well to remind ourselves that man’s
knowledge of God has been progressive. The most
general revelation of the existence of God has been given
through nature and is therefore common to all men. The
existence of God is an intuitive9 truth universally
accepted by the unprejudiced mind. Man knows himself to
be dependent and responsible, and therefore posits 10 the
One on Whom he is dependent and to Whom he is
responsible. He [ascribes] to this One in an eminent
degree all of the good qualities that he finds in himself,
and thus comes to know God as a personal Spirit—
infinite, eternal, and perfect in His attributes. 11
The second stage in the revelation concerning the
nature and attributes of God was that given through the
Old Testament period. There a great advance is made
over the revelation given through man’s intuition and
through nature, and God is disclosed as particularly the
God of grace and the redeemer of sinners.
The third stage, the one in which at present we are
particularly interested, is that given in the New
Testament, in which God is represented as existing in a
trinity of persons, each of Whom performs a distinctive
part in the works of creation, providence, and redemption.
As Dr. Warfield12 has pointed out:
“The elements of the plan of salvation are rooted in the
mysterious nature of the Godhead, in which there
coexists a trinal13 distinction of persons with absolute
unity of essence; and the revelation of the Trinity was
accordingly incidental to the execution of this plan of
salvation, in which the Father sent the Son to be the
propitiation14 for sin, and the Son, when He returned to
the glory which He had with the Father before the world
was, sent the Spirit to apply His redemption to men. The
disclosure of this fundamental fact of the divine nature,
therefore, lagged until the time had arrived for the actual
working out of the long-promised redemption; and it was
accomplished first of all in fact rather than in word, by the
actual appearance of God the Son on earth and the
subsequent manifestations of the Spirit, Who was sent
forth to act as His representative in His absence.” 15

From Studies in Theology, Chapter III, “The Trinity,” used

with permission of P&R Publishing Co., P.O. Box 817,
Phillipsburg, N.J. 08865.
 Loraine Boettner (1901-1990): American
Presbyterian theologian; born in Linden, Missouri.
 Overview of the Trinity
William S. Plumer (1802-1880)

The word trinity is not found in the Bible, 16 but the

doctrine of the Trinity is there. The word trinity means the
unity of three, that is, the unity of the three divine
persons.17
The word person, when used on this subject, does
not mean a separate individual, but a distinct
subsistence.18 It denotes a distinction in the divine Being
[that is] real, but inexplicable.19 The doctrine of the Trinity
has had many enemies. The Arians20 contended that the
Son of God was totally and essentially distinct from the
Father, and so in nature and dignity inferior to the Father.
They also taught that the Holy Ghost was not God, but
was created by the power of Jesus Christ. The Sabellians 21
denied that there was more than one person in the
Godhead and said that the Son and the Spirit were mere
virtues or functions of divinity. The Socinians 22 taught that
Christ was a mere man, and that the Holy Ghost was not
a distinct subsistence. The Unitarians 23 confine the glory
and attributes of divinity to the Father. They do not allow
Christ or the Holy Spirit to be truly divine. Still, the
doctrine of the Trinity has been held and is now held by
the great body of Christians.
The Persons of the Trinity are clearly
distinguished in the Scriptures as the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost (Mat 28:19). [They are distinguished]
elsewhere as the Lord Jesus Christ, God, and the Holy
Ghost (2Co 13:14). The first Person of the Godhead is
spoken of as one God, the Father, of Whom are all things.
The second is spoken of as one Lord Jesus Christ, by
Whom are all things, and we by Him (1Co 8:6). The third
is spoken of as the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Comforter sent to
convince men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment
(John 16:8).
The Father is neither begotten,24 nor does He proceed
from the Son or the Spirit. The Son is begotten of the
Father, the only-begotten25 of the Father (John 1:14; 3:16).
The Spirit is not begotten, but proceeds from the Father,
is the Spirit of the Father, and is the Spirit of the Son; [He]
is of the Son and is sent by the Son (John 15:26; Rom 8:9,
14; 1Pe 1:11). But the words Father and Son, beget and
begotten, are not to be overstrained. They are merely the
fittest words to convey to our dull minds some just idea of
the relation existing between the first and second Persons
of the Godhead.
No one denies the divinity of the Father. No one
ought to deny the true and supreme divinity of the Son. 26
Of Him, the Scripture says, “This is the true God and
eternal life” (1Jo 5:20). He “is over all, God blessed for
ever” (Rom 9:5). “For as the Father hath life in himself; so
hath he given to the Son to have life in himself” (John
5:26). Thomas worshipped Him, calling Him, “My Lord and
my God” (John 20:28). The world was made by the Son
(Col 1:16). It shall be destroyed by the Son (Heb 1:12). All
men shall be judged by the Son (John 5:22, 27). Stephen,
dying, prayed to Him (Acts 7:59). The very highest
worship of heaven is offered to Him (Rev 5:12-13). So also
the Spirit of God is truly God. In Acts 5:3-4, the Holy Ghost
is expressly called God. The Spirit perfectly knows God,
and so is God (1Co 2:10-11). He is joined with the Father
and the Son in the form of baptism (Mat 28:19) and in the
apostolic benediction27 (2Co 13:14).
This doctrine is never to be so taught as to lead men to
suppose that there are three Gods. 28 We do not deny the
unity of God. We glory in it. Nor do we hold that God is
three in the same sense in which He is one, for that would
be a contradiction. But He is one in being, in nature, in
essence; and three in personality or subsistence. So that
when we speak of the Father, we say He, His, Him; and
when the Father speaks of Himself, He says I, Mine, Me;
and when we speak to Him, we say Thou, Thine, Thee.
The same form of speech is also found in regard to the
Son and the Spirit. When John baptized our Lord, all three
persons of the Trinity were present: “And Jesus, when he
was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and,
lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon
him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mat 3:16-17).
So we find all three persons of the Godhead spoken of in
John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you
all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you.”
As all three persons of the Godhead concurred 29 in
man’s creation, so do they all concur in man’s
redemption. The Father gave the only-begotten Son
(John 3:16). The Son laid down His life for His sheep (John
10:17-18). The Spirit reproves the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment, and guides God’s people
into all truth (John 16:8, 13). There is a wonderful and
unspeakable communion of nature, attributes, and glory
in the persons of the Godhead. Christ says of the Spirit:
“He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and
shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are
mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and
shall shew it unto you” (John 16:14-15). It is the will of
God that “all men should honour the Son, even as they
honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son
honoureth not the Father which hath sent him” (John
5:23). Now, if men refuse to honor the Son and worship
only the Father, or if they honor the Son not as the Son of
God but merely as a creature, they do displease Him Who
sent His Son into the world. We must worship the Trinity in
unity and unity in Trinity. The doctrine here maintained
relates therefore to the object of religious worship. The
orthodox hold that we are to worship the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost. All others worship God not as He is
revealed in the Bible, but according to their own ideas.
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”
(John 17:3). It is a remarkable fact that men who hold the
supreme divinity of Christ never deny the divinity of the
Spirit.
We have hints of this doctrine of the Trinity in the
oldest writings of Scripture. In the first verse of
Genesis, the word rendered God is in the plural form. So
in Job 35:10, the word Maker in the Hebrew is plural. So in
Ecclesiastes 12:1, the word Creator is in the plural. So in
Isaiah 54:5, the words Maker and Husband are both in the
plural. So in Malachi 1:6, the word Master is in the plural.
Not only are nouns but pronouns found in the plural. In
Genesis 1:26, we read, “Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness” (See Gen 3:22). Many things like these
are found in the Old Testament. Whatever arguments
prove the divinity and personality of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost, prove the doctrine of the Trinity. For if each of
these is a person, and each of Them is divine, there is no
more doubt of the Trinity.

From Theology for the People, Sprinkle Publications,

www.sprinklepublications.net.

William S. Plumer (1802-1880): American

Presbyterian minister and author; born in Greensburg, PA,
USA.
 One Essence, Three Persons
Wilhelmus á Brakel (1635-1711)

We will now turn to the mystery of all mysteries, the

Holy Trinity. Throughout history all parties opposed to the
truth have vehemently assaulted this article of faith. The
ancient Church has always confessed this article and
defended it as a steadfast pillar of the truth against
Sabellians, Arians, and Valentians.30 However much they
may disagree with one another concerning other points of
doctrine, they are united in their attack upon the Holy
Trinity. Today we must defend this article against
Socinians, Anabaptists,31 Socinian Arminians,32 and other
proponents of error. Thanks be unto God Who has always
caused the Church to be faithful to this truth. The Church
stands firm in this truth until this very day, and God will
enable her to stand firm in it until the day of Christ, in
spite of all who regret this.
Before we proceed with our consideration of this
doctrine and before you meditate upon it, the following
must be clearly perceived:
First, it must be understood that God is
33 34
incomprehensible in His essence and existence. It
should further be understood that we human beings, to
whom God has been pleased to reveal Himself in a
manner sufficient to lead us unto salvation, only know in
part and are but able to grasp a fragment or the external
fringes of the doctrine at hand. Believers must not, nor do
they desire to, proceed with their minds beyond its
defined limitations, that is, beyond that which the Lord
has been pleased to shed light upon. Whatever cannot be
fully understood and perceived, they believe. They
worship the Invisible One Who dwells in the light that no
man can approach unto (1Ti 6:16).
Secondly, the entire written Word of God, having been
given to man, uses human language and words that
relate to tangible35 objects. Such is the wondrous wisdom,
goodness, and omnipotence36 of God that man by means
of earthly expressions understands spiritual matters.
Thus, that which is stated anthropropathos [“after the
manner of men”], that is, in a human manner, can be
understood theoprepos [“after the manner of God”], that
is, in its divine dimension. Such is the case with the
language and vocabulary that are used to reveal the
mystery of the Holy Trinity. Therefore, one must be
cautious not to cleave to the tangible matters from which
the words have been derived nor to bring divine matters
down to the human level. Rather, we must ascend above
tangible matters and expressions in order that, in a
spiritual manner pleasing to God, we may understand
what God states concerning Himself...
Thirdly, it should be understood that the Holy
Trinity cannot be known from nature, but has only
been revealed in Scripture. Therefore, one should
refer only to Scripture and in all simplicity believe its
testimony. One must not exalt his wisdom above that
which has been written: he must set all human reasoning
aside and avoid all imaginary comparisons to tangible
objects. Such comparisons, rather than shedding light
upon the issue, result in more obscurity and tend to divert
from, rather than promote, a proper understanding of this
mystery. May the Lord sanctify and guide me in writing,
and you in reading or hearing.
The singular essence of god’s being: We maintain
and state emphatically that there is only one God. “Hear,
O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD” (Deu 6:4); “For
though there be that are called gods…to us there is but
one God” (1Co 8:5–6); “But God is one” (Gal 3:20); “For
there is one God” (1Ti 2:5). There can of necessity only be
one eternal, omnipotent, and all-sufficient Being. Even
the most intelligent among the heathen have
acknowledged this. The most barbaric heathen of our
time, showing no external evidence of any religion,
acknowledge but one God. The perception among the
heathen that there are many gods seems to originate
from the knowledge of the existence of angels, and
perhaps also from an erroneous understanding
concerning the Holy Trinity and the plural name of God,
Elohim.
Divine personality defined: This one and only God is
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The divine Being has a
threefold manner of existence, which expressed in
intelligible language—lest heretics 37 find here a pretext38
—is denominated in Scripture by the use of the word
person. In Hebrews 1:3, reference is made to tēs
hypostaseōs autou, “the express image of His person.”
Since the word hypostasis refers to “an intelligent,
independent being,” the reference is consequently to a
person. We understand this to refer to a living, intelligent,
incommunicable39 being who is fully independent, sharing
no part with any other being. Such is true of angels and
men who consequently are referred to as persons. By
application of this concept, the divine entities are called
persons, so that, in perceiving the divine dimension of the
anthropomorphism,40 we should be able to comprehend
something about that which is incomprehensible. We can
consider one of the divine persons in an abstract sense,
that is, outside of the context of the divine Being, as is
expressed for instance in Hebrews 1:3, where it is stated
that Christ is the express image of His Father’s person.
We can also consider the person in a concrete sense, that
is, as viewed in union with the divine Being, such as is
expressed in Philippians 2:6, where it is said, “Who, being
in the form of God.” According to His divine nature Christ
is said to be en morphē Theou, “in the form,” that is,
having the being and nature of God so that He is equal to
God. As the form of a servant includes personhood,
essential being, and characteristics, the Word of God
similarly includes personhood, essential being, and
attributes as constituting the form of God...
The divine essence consists of three persons: This
one divine Being subsists41 in three persons, not
collaterally (or side-by-side), but rather the one person
exists by virtue of the other person either by way of
generation or procession. The fact that there are three
persons in the one divine Being is so clearly revealed in
the Word of God that it cannot be contradicted. It is
evident in both the Old and New Testaments.
 First, it is revealed in the name Elohim: (1) Elohim
is a plural form that does not refer to one or two persons,
but always expresses a plurality that exceeds two. Since
Scripture expressly refers to three, we ought to be
convinced of its teaching that the one God subsists in
three persons. Elohim is rarely used in the singular, never
in a dual sense, but generally in the plural. Since we know
that there is but one God, Who in reference to His Being
cannot be given a name with a plural dimension, the
name Elohim clearly indicates that there is a trinity of
persons.
(2) It should additionally be noted that the plural form
of Elohim is also used in conjunction with a plural verb,
adjective, or pronoun, and that a plural number is always
affixed to it. Such is true in the following texts: “And God
(Elohim) said, Let us make man” (Gen 1:26); “when God
(Elohim) caused me to wander” (Gen 20:13). “He is an
holy God (Elohim)” (Jos 24:19); “Remember now thy
Creator (Creators)” (Ecc 12:1); “Thy Makers are Thy
husbands” (Isa 54:5); “I am the LORD thy God (Eloheka)”
(Exo 20:2).42It should be noted that the names Jehovah43
and Elohim often coalesce44 into the one name Jehovah,
and that quite frequently these two names are used in
conjunction with each other, indicating the unity of Being
as well as the subsistence in three persons. Whenever the
plural name of God, Elohim, is used in a singular sense,
the persons are considered as one Being…This indicates
periemchoresin,45 that is, the internal coexistence, and
that the divine persons are inseparable from the divine
Being and from each other.46
Secondly, the Trinity of persons is also evident in
texts (1) in which the Lord refers to Himself as being
more than one or two. “Let us make man” (Gen 1:26); 47
“the man is become as one of us” (Gen 3:22); “let us go
down, and there confound their language” (Gen 11:7).
[God’s] use of the plural relative to Himself reveals the
Trinity of persons, for which reason He is referred to in the
original Hebrew as Creators in Ecclesiastes 12:1.
(2) It is also evident in texts wherein the Lord speaks
about Himself as if He were referring to another person.
“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah
brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven” (Gen
19:24). One of the three angels that spoke with Abraham
was Jehovah, the Son of God. He Who appeared on earth
caused this rain to come down from the Lord in heaven.
Both He Who summoned this rain, as well as the One Who
caused it to rain, are referred to as Jehovah. As God is
one in essence, the reference here cannot be to two
different Beings, but rather to the Son and the Father,
being the Second and the First Persons of the Godhead.
For it is the Father Who works through the Son, and the
Son works on behalf of His Father (John 5:19).
Thirdly, to further facilitate your inner conviction,
consider with a believing heart those texts that expressly
state that God is trinitarian, not in His essence (ousia) but
in persons (hypostases). In the blessing that the Lord
enjoins to be pronounced upon His people, the name
Jehovah is repeated three times. “The LORD bless thee,
and keep thee: the LORD make His face shine upon thee,
and be gracious unto thee: the LORD lift up His
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace” (Num 6:24-
26). In each repetition, the name Jehovah is conjoined to
an activity that in the administration of the covenant of
grace is specifically ascribed to either the Father, the Son,
or the Holy Ghost. Safekeeping is ascribed to the Father,
the manifestation of grace to the Son, and the bestowal
of peace to the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul expressing
this in his benediction mentions the three persons in 2
Corinthians 13:14, clearly proving that the repetition of
the name Jehovah must be viewed as being indicative of
the three persons. This threefold repetition is also found
in Isaiah 6:3, where it is stated, “Holy, holy, holy, is the
LORD.” In the New Testament, this text is used to refer to
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (cf. John 12:41; Act
28:25). Furthermore, consider the following texts: “The
Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me” (Isa 61:1); “I will
mention the loving kindnesses of the LORD…the angel of
His presence (from Mal 3:1 we know that this refers to the
Son) saved them” (Isa 63:7, 9); “But they rebelled, and
vexed his holy Spirit” (Isa 63:10); “By the word of the
LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them
by the breath of his mouth” (Psa 33:6).
There is also clear evidence in the New Testament. “And,
lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon
him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mat 3:16-17).
“Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mat 28:19); “The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all” (2Co
13:14); “For there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three
are one” (1Jo 5:7).
We have thus observed that there are three persons in
the divine Being.

From The Christian’s Reasonable Service, Vol. 1,

Reformation Heritage Books, used by permission,
www.heritagebooks.org.

Wilhelmus á Brakel (1635-1711): Dutch theologian

and major representative of the Dutch Second
Reformation; born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.
 The Doctrine Unfolded
Loraine Boettner (1901-1990)

There is but one living and true God: One of the

most common objections alleged against the doctrine of
the Trinity is that it involves tritheism, or a belief in three
Gods. The fact of the matter, however, is that it stands
unalterably opposed to tritheism as well as to every other
form of polytheism. Scripture, reason, and conscience are
in perfect agreement that there is but one self-existent,
eternal, Supreme Being in Whom all of the divine
attributes or perfections inhere48 and from Whom they
cannot be separated. That both the Old and New
Testaments do teach the unity of God is clearly set forth
in the following verses:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deu
6:4). “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his
redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the
last; and beside me there is no God” (Isa 44:6). The
Decalogue,49 which is the foundation of the moral and
religious code of Christianity, as well as of Judaism, has as
its first and greatest commandment, “Thou shalt have no
other gods before me” (Exo 20:3). “I and my Father are
one,” said Jesus (John 10:30). “Thou believest that there
is one God; thou doest well” (Jam 2:19). “We know that an
idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other
God but one” (1Co 8:4). There is but “one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all,
and through all, and in you all” (Eph 4:5-6). “I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the
beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13). From Genesis to
Revelation, God is declared to be one…
Certainly the Unitarians have no monopoly on the
doctrine of the unity of God. Trinitarians hold this just as
definitely. The unity of God is one of the basic postulates 50
of theism,51 and no system can possibly be true that
teaches otherwise.
While god in his innermost nature is one, he,
nevertheless, exists as three persons. The best
concise definition of the doctrine of the Trinity, so far as
we are aware, is that found in the Westminster Shorter
Catechism: “There are three persons within the Godhead:
the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and these three
are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and
glory.” We would prefer, however, to use the term Spirit
rather than Ghost, since a ghost is commonly understood
to be a spirit that once had a body but lost it, and the
Holy Spirit has never possessed a body of any kind.
We have seen that the Scriptures teach that there is but
one true and living God. They teach with equal clearness
that this one God exists as three distinct persons, as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit:
(a) The Father is God: “To us there is but one God, the
Father, of whom are all things” (1Co 8:6). “Paul, an
apostle…through Jesus Christ, and God the Father” (Gal
1:1). “There is…one God and Father of all” (Eph 4:6). “At
that season Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O
Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (Mat 11:25). “For him
[the Son] hath God the Father sealed” (John 6:27).
“According to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1Pe
1:2). “That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phi 2:11). “I
ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God,
and your God” (John 20:17). “But the hour cometh, and
now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). Jesus prayed to
God the Father (Mar 14:36; John 11:41; 17:11, etc.).
(b) The Son is God:52 “Christ…who is over all, God
blessed for ever” (Rom 9:5). “For in Him [Christ] dwelleth
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:9). “Thomas
answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God” (John
20:28). “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). “Looking
for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Ti 2:13). “Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mat 16:16).
Christ assumed power over the Sabbath, and “said also
that God was his Father, making himself equal with God”
(John 5:18). He assumed the prerogatives 53 of God in
forgiving sins (Mar 2:5). “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John
1:1).
The attributes that can be ascribed only to God are
ascribed to Christ: Holiness—“…thou art, the Holy One of
God” (Mar 1:24); “Him…who knew no sin” (2Co 5:21);
“Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (John 8:46); “Holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb 7:26).
Eternity—“In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1);
“Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58); “But unto the
Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever”
(Heb 1:8); “The glory which I had with thee before the
world was” (John 17:5). Life—“In him was life” (John 1:4);
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6); “I am the
resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Immutability54
—“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for
ever” (Heb 13:8). “They [the heavens] shall perish; but
thou remainest…They shall be changed: but thou art the
same” (Heb 1:11-12). Omnipotence—“And Jesus came
and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me
in heaven and in earth” (Mat 28:18); “The Lord, which is,
and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Rev
1:8). Omniscience55—“Thou knowest all things” (John
16:30); “Jesus knowing their thoughts” (Mat 9:4); “Jesus
knew from the beginning who they were that believed
not, and who should betray him” (John 6:64); “In whom
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col
2:3). Omnipresence56—“I am with you alway” (Mat 28:20);
“The fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph 1:23).
Creation—“ All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3); “The
world was made by him” (John 1:10); “For by him were all
things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were
created by him, and for him: And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist” (Col 1:16-17); “Upholding
all things by the word of his power” (Heb 1:3). Raising the
dead—“[The Father] hath given him authority to execute
judgment also…for the hour is coming, in the which all
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come
forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation” (John 5:27-29). Judgment of all men—“When
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his
glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and
he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the
sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then
shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world… Then shall he say
also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels… And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Mat
25:31-46). Prayer and worship are to be directed to Christ
—“If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John
14:14); “He was parted from them, and carried up into
heaven. And they worshipped him” (Luke 24:51-52); “And
they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit” (Act 7:59); all are to “honour the
Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth
not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent
him” (John 5:23); “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved” (Act 16:31); “Let all the angels of
God worship him” (Heb 1:6). “That at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow…And that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father” (Phi 2:10-11). “Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”
(2Pe 3:18); “Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and
ever” (Heb 13:21)—and when we compare these verses
with statements such as we have in Isaiah, “Look unto
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am
God, and there is none else” (45:22), and Jeremiah, “Thus
saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man,
and maketh flesh his arm” (17:5), we are faced with this
dilemma: either the Christian doctrine of the Trinity must
be true, or the Scriptures are self-contradictory; either the
Scriptures recognize more gods than one, or Christ,
together with the Father and the Holy Spirit is that one
God.
 All of these ascriptions57 of holiness, eternity, life,
immutability, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence,
creation, providence, raising the dead, judgment of all
men, prayer, and worship due to Christ most clearly teach
His deity. Such attitudes of mind if directed toward a
creature would be idolatrous.
(c) The Holy Spirit is God: “Peter said, Ananias, why
hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy
Ghost?...thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God” (Act
5:3-4); “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save
the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of
God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1Co 2:11);
“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me” (John
15:26). In the Baptismal Formula, “Go ye therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mat
28:19), and in the Apostolic Benediction, “The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all” (2Co
13:14), the Holy Spirit is placed on a plane of absolute
equality with the Father and the Son as deity and is
regarded equally with them as the source of all power and
blessing.
There are many, even among professedly Christian
people, who have no higher conception of the Holy Spirit
than that of an impersonal, mysterious, supernatural
power or influence of God. It is true that in the Old
Testament, where the emphasis was upon the unity of
God, the references to the Spirit, while not incapable of
being applied to a distinct person, were more generally
understood to designate simply God’s power or influence.
But in the more advanced revelation of the New
Testament, the distinct personality of the Holy Spirit is
clearly seen. No longer can He be looked upon as merely
a divine power or influence, but as a divine person…
That the Holy Spirit is a person is clearly taught in the
following verses: “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go
near, and join thyself to this chariot” (Act 8:29). “The
Spirit said unto him [Peter], Behold, three men seek thee.
Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them,
doubting nothing: for I have sent them” (Act 10:19-20).
“The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for
the work whereunto I have called them” (Act 13:2). “For
the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye
ought to say” (Luke 12:12). “When he, the Spirit of truth,
is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not
speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall
he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall
glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it
unto you” (John 16:13-14). “And I will pray the Father, and
he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide
with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you,
and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17)—here the Holy Spirit
is called a “Comforter” (marginal reference “Advocate”),
that is, one called to stand by our side as our Guide,
Teacher, Instructor, Sponsor; and in the nature of the
case, therefore, He must be a person. In a parallel
passage, Christ is similarly spoken of: “We have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1Jo
2:1). “The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom 8:26). “And
grieve not the holy Spirit of God” (Eph 4:30). “He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches” (Rev 2:17). “All manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it
shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this
world, neither in the world to come” (Mat 12:31-32). The
language here used implies that it is impossible to
commit a sin against a more divine personage than the
Holy Spirit; that of all possible sins, the sin against the
Holy Spirit is the worst—both in its nature and
consequences—and thus implies His eternal dignity and
deity.
Words that in the Old Testament are ascribed to God are
in the New Testament more specifically said to have been
spoken by the Holy Spirit (cf. Jer 31:33-34 with Heb 10:15-
17; Psa 95:7-11 with Heb 3:7-11; Isa 6:9-10 with Act
28:25-28). In the Old Testament, we read that the Holy
Spirit brought order out of the primeval 58 chaos (Gen 1:2);
and He strove to lead the antediluvians 59 in the ways of
righteousness (Gen 6:3). He equipped certain men to
become prophets (Num 11:26, 29). He instructed the
Israelites as a people (Neh 9:20); He came upon Isaiah
and equipped him to be a prophet (61:1), and caused
Ezekiel to go and preach to those of the captivity (3:12,
15). In the New Testament, the miracle of the virgin birth
of Christ was wrought through His power (Luke 1:35). He
descended on Jesus at the baptism and equipped Him for
the public ministry (Mat 3:16). He was promised as a
Comforter and Teacher to the disciples (John 16:7-13). He
came upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost and
equipped them to be world missionaries (Act 2:1-42). He
kept Paul from going in one direction and sent him in
another (Act 16:6-10); He equips different individuals with
different gifts and talents (1Co 12:4-31); He performs the
supernatural work of regenerating the souls of men (Ti
3:5; John 3:5). He inspired the prophets and apostles so
that what they spoke or wrote in God’s name was truly
His word to the people (2Pe 1:20-21). In the works of
regeneration60 and sanctification,61 He applies to the heart
of each of the Lord’s people the objective redemption that
was wrought out by Christ, and in general He directs the
affairs of the advancing Church. He is thus set forth as
the “Author” of order and beauty in the physical world
and of faith and holiness in the spiritual world.
Throughout the Scriptures the Holy Spirit is thus set
forth as a distinct person, with a mind, will, and power of
His own. Baptism is administered in His name. He is
constantly associated with two other persons—the Father
and the Son—Whose distinct personalities are recognized,
a phenomenon that could lead only to confusion if He,
too, were not a distinct person. The personal pronouns
He, Him, I, and Me are applied to [the Holy Spirit],
pronouns that can be used intelligently only when applied
to a person. They occur so repeatedly through the prose
narratives and cannot be set aside as a tendency to
personify an impersonal force. That two and two make
four does not appear more clear and conclusive than that
the Holy Spirit is a living agent, working with
consciousness, will, and power.
After the personality of the Holy Spirit is established,
there are but few who will deny His deity. It is certain that
He is not a creature, and consequently those who admit
His personality accept His deity readily enough. Most of
the heretical sects that have maintained that Christ was a
mere man have, in accordance with that, maintained that
the Spirit was only a power or influence…
The terms “father,” “son,” and “holy spirit”
designate distinct persons who are objective to
each other. The terms Father, Son, and Spirit do not
merely designate the different relations that God assumes
toward His creatures. They are not analogous 62 to the
terms Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor, which do
express such relations, but are the proper names of
different subjects Who are distinct from one another as
one person is distinct from another. That this is true is
clear from the following personal relations that they bear
toward each other:
(a) They mutually use the pronouns I, Thou, He,
and Him when speaking to or of each other. “This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him”
(Mat 17:5). “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that
thy Son also may glorify thee” (John 17:1). “I came forth
from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I
leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:28).
“When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you
into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but
whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will
shew you things to come” (John 16:13).
(b) The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves
the Father. The Spirit glorifies the Son. “The Father
loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand”
(John 3:35). “…even as I have kept my Father’s
commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10). “He
[the Holy Spirit] shall glorify me: for he shall receive of
mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 16:14).
(c) The Son prays to the Father. “And now, O Father,
glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I
had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5). “And I
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John
14:16).
(d) The Father sends the Son, and the Father and
the Son send the Holy Spirit Who acts as Their
Agent. “He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that
receiveth me receiveth him that sent me” (Mat 10:40).
“As thou hast sent me into the world” (John 17:18). “And
this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John
17:3). “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all
things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). “It is
expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the
Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will
send him unto you” (John 16:7).
Thus, we see that the persons within the Godhead are
so distinct that each can address the others, each can
love the others, the Father sends the Son, the Father and
the Son send the Spirit, the Son prays to the Father, and
we can pray to each of them. They act and are acted
upon as subject and object, and each has a particular
work to perform. We say they are distinct persons, for a
person is one who can say I, who can be addressed as
thou, and who can act and be the object of action.
The doctrine of the Trinity, then, is but the synthesis 63 of
these facts. When we have said these three things, that
there is but one God, that the Father and the Son and the
Spirit are each God, and that the Father and the Son and
the Spirit are each a distinct Person, we have enunciated
the doctrine of the Trinity in its fullness. This is the form in
which it is found in the Scriptures, and it is also the form
in which it has entered into the faith of the Church.

From Studies in Theology, Chapter III, “The Trinity,” used

with permission of P&R Publishing Co., P.O. Box 817,
Phillipsburg, N.J. 08865.
 Divine Order in the Godhead
Loraine Boettner (1901-1990)

In discussing the doctrine of the Trinity, we must

distinguish between what is technically known as the
immanent64 and the economic65 Trinity. By the immanent
Trinity, we mean the Trinity as it has subsisted in the
Godhead from all eternity. In their essential, innate 66 life,
we say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the same
in substance,67 possessing identical attributes and
powers, and therefore equal in glory. This relates to God’s
essential existence apart from the creation. By the
economic Trinity, we mean the Trinity as manifested in
the world, particularly in the redemption of sinful men.
There are three opera ad extra68—additional works, if we
may so describe them—that are ascribed to the Trinity,
namely, Creation, Redemption, and Sanctification. These
are works that are outside of the necessary activities of
the Trinity, works that God was under no obligation or
compulsion to perform.
In the Scriptures, we find that the plan of redemption
takes the form of a covenant, not merely between God
and His people, but between the different persons within
the Trinity, so that there is, as it were, a division of labor,
[with] each person voluntarily assuming a particular part
of the work. 1st—To the Father is ascribed primarily the
work of Creation, together with the election of a certain
number of individuals whom He has given to the Son. The
Father is in general the “Author” of the plan of
redemption. 2nd—To the Son is ascribed the work of
redemption, which to accomplish He became incarnate,
assuming human nature in order that, as the federal head
and representative of His people, He might, as their
substitute,69 assume the guilt of their sin and suffer a full
equivalent for the penalty of eternal death that rested
upon them. He thus made full satisfaction to the demands
of justice, which demands are expressed in the words,
“The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze 18:4, 20), and,
“The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Also, in His
capacity as the federal head and representative of His
people, He covenanted to keep the law of perfect
obedience that was originally given to their forefather,
Adam, in his representative capacity, which law Adam
had broken and had thereby plunged the race into a state
of guilt and ruin. Identifying Himself thus with His people,
He paid the penalty that rested on them and earned their
salvation. Acting as their King and Savior, and also as
Head of the Church that He thus forms, He directs the
advancing kingdom and is ever present with His people.
3rd—To the Holy Spirit is ascribed the works of
regeneration and sanctification, or the application to the
hearts of individuals of the objective atonement that has
been wrought out by Christ. This He does by spiritually
renewing their hearts, working in them faith and
repentance, cleansing them of every taint 70 of sin, and
eventually glorifying them in heaven. Redemption, in the
broad sense, is thus a matter of pure grace, being
planned by the Father, purchased by the Son, and applied
by the Holy Spirit…
Yet while particular works are ascribed pre-eminently to
each of the persons, so intimate is the unity that exists
within the Trinity, there being but one substance and “one
God,” that each of the persons participates to some
extent in the work of the others.71 “I am in the Father, and
the Father in me” (John 14:11), said Jesus. “He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). “God was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself” (2Co 5:19). “I will
not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” [through
the Holy Spirit] (John 14:18). As Dr. Charles Hodge72 says,
“According to the Scriptures, the Father created the
world, the Son created the world, and the Spirit
created the world. The Father preserves all things;
the Son upholds all things; and the Spirit is the
source of all life. These facts are expressed by
saying that the persons of the Trinity concur in all
acts ad extra. Nevertheless, there are some acts
which are predominantly referred to the Father,
 others to the Son, and others to the Spirit. The
Father creates, elects, and calls; the Son redeems;
and the Spirit sanctifies.”73

Hence, we say that while the spheres and functions of

the three persons of the Trinity are different, they are not
exclusive. That which is done by one is participated in by
the others with varying degrees of prominence. 74 The fact
of the matter is that there have been three great epochs
or dispensations in the history of redemption,
corresponding to and successively manifesting the three
persons of the Godhead. That of the Father began at the
creation and continued until the beginning of the public
ministry of Jesus; that of the Son, embracing a
comparatively short period of time, but the important
period in which redemption was worked out objectively,
began with the public ministry of Jesus and continued
until the day of Pentecost; and that of the Holy Spirit
began with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples
on the day of Pentecost and continues until the end of the
age.
In regard to the work of the economic Trinity, we find
there is a definite procedure in the work of redemption
and also in the government of the world in general: the
work of the Father in creation and in the general plan for
the world being primary, that of the Son in redeeming the
world being subordinate to and dependent on that of the
Father, and that of the Holy Spirit in applying redemption
coming later in time and being subordinate to and
dependent on that of the Father and of the Son. Hence, in
regard to the work of redemption particularly, which is the
great and all-important work that God does for man in
this world, there is a logical order—that of the Father
being first, that of the Son second, and that of the Spirit
third. And when the persons of the Trinity are mentioned
in our theological statements, it is always in this order.
The Father sends the Son and works through Him (John
17:8; Rom 8:3; 1Th 5:9; Rom 5:1), and the Father and Son
work through the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5; Gal 5:22-23; Ti 3:5;
Act 15:8-9). In Christ’s own words, He that is sent is not
greater than He that hath sent Him (John 13:16); and in
His state of humiliation, speaking from the standpoint of
His human nature, He could say, “The Father is greater
than I” (John 14:28). Paul tells us that we are Christ’s and
that Christ is God’s (1Co 3:23); also, that as Christ is the
head of every man, so God is the head of Christ (1Co
11:3). Numerous things are predicated 75 of the incarnate
Son that cannot be predicated of the Second Person of
the Trinity as such—Jesus in His human nature advanced
in wisdom (Luke 2:52), and even late in His public
ministry did not know when the end of the world was to
come (Mat 24:36). In the work of redemption, which we
may term a work of supererogation76 since it is
undertaken through pure grace and love and not through
obligation, the Son Who is equal with the Father becomes,
as it were, officially subject to Him. And in turn, the Spirit
is sent by, acts for, and reveals both the Father and the
Son, glorifies not Himself but Christ, and works in the
hearts of His people faith, love, holiness, and spiritual
enlightenment. This subordination of the Son to the
Father, and of the Spirit to the Father and the Son, relates
not to their essential life within the Godhead, but only to
their modes of operation or their division of labor in
creation and redemption.
This subordination of the Son to the Father, and of the
Spirit to the Father and the Son, is not in any way
inconsistent with true equality. We have an analogy of
such priority and subordination, for instance, in the
relationship that exists between husband and wife in the
human family. Paul tells us that that relationship is one of
equality in Christ Jesus, in Whom “there can be no male
and female” (Gal 3:28), woman’s soul being of as much
value as man’s, yet one of personal priority and
subordination in which in the home and the State the
husband is the acknowledged spokesman and leader. As
Dr. W. Brenton Greene says:
“In the sight of God husband and wife are, and in
the eye of the law ought to be, halves of one whole
and neither better than the other. But while this is
so and cannot be emphasized too strongly, the
relationship of husband and wife, nevertheless, is
such that the position of the wife is distinct from
 and dependent on that of the husband. This does
not imply that the wife as a person is of inferior
worth to her husband: in this respect there is
neither male nor female; for they are both ‘one in
Christ Jesus.’ Neither does it mean that the mission
of the wife is of less importance than that of the
husband. There are certain functions, moral and
intellectual as well as physical, which she fulfills far
better than her husband; and there are certain
other functions of supreme necessity that only she
can fulfill at all. What is meant, however, is that as
there are some things of primary importance that
only the wife can do, so there are other
indispensable functions that only the husband
ought to discharge, and chief among these is the
direction of their common life. He, therefore,
should be the ‘head’ of the ‘one body’ that husband
and wife together form. Whether we can
understand it or not, such a relationship is not
inconsistent with perfect equality. It is not in the
case of the Trinity. Father, Son, and Spirit are equal
in power and glory. Yet the Son is second to the
Father, and the Spirit is second to both the Father
and the Son, as to their ‘mode of subsistence and
operation.’ Whatever, therefore, the secondary
position of the wife as regards her husband may
imply, it need not imply even the least inferiority.” 77

In the work of redemption…through a covenant

voluntarily entered into, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
each undertake a specific work in such a manner that,
during the time this work is in progress, the Father
becomes officially first, the Son officially second, and the
Spirit officially third. Yet within the essential and inherent
life of the Trinity, the full equality of the persons is
preserved.

From Studies in Theology, Chapter III, “The Trinity,” used

with permission of P&R Publishing Co., P.O. Box 817,
Phillipsburg, N.J. 08865.

The Old Testament may be likened to a

chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the
introduction of light brings into it nothing which
was not in it before; but it brings out into
clearer view much of what is in it but was only
dimly or even not at all perceived before. The
mystery of the Trinity is not revealed in the Old
Testament; but the mystery of the Trinity
underlies the Old Testament revelation, and
here and there almost comes into view. Thus
the Old Testament revelation is not corrected
by the fuller revelation which follows it, but
only perfected, extended and enlarged.—B. B.
Warfield
 A Foundational Doctrine
A. W. Pink (1886-1952)

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love

of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost,
be with you all. Amen.—2 Corinthians 13:14
The divine Trinity lies at the basis of all New Testament
teaching…The “only true God” is revealed as Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit and is known in and through Jesus Christ,
the one Mediator.78 That the revelation of the triune God
constitutes the doctrinal foundation of Christianity is
easily capable of demonstration.
First, as pointed out above, the true God subsists 79 in
three co-essential80 and co-eternal persons, and therefore
he who worships any but the triune God is merely
rendering homage to a figment of his own imagination.
He who denies the personality and absolute deity of
either the Father, the Son, or the Spirit cannot be a true
Christian.
Second, no salvation is possible for any sinner save
that of which the triune God is the Author. To regard the
Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior to the exclusion of the
saving operations of both the Father and the Spirit is a
serious mistake. The Father eternally purposed the
salvation of His elect in Christ (Eph 1:3-6). The Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit entered into an everlasting
covenant81 with each other for the Son to become
incarnate in order to redeem sinners.
The salvation of the Church is ascribed to the Father:
“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling…
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2Ti 1:9). The
Father, then, was our Savior long before Christ died to
become such, and thanksgiving is due Him for the same.
Equally necessary are the operations of the Spirit to
actually apply to the hearts of God’s elect the good of
what Christ did for them. It is the Spirit Who convicts men
of sin and Who imparts saving faith to them. Therefore is
our salvation also ascribed to Him: “God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2Th 2:13). A careful
reading of Titus 3:4-6 shows the three persons together in
this connection, for “God our Savior” is plainly the Father;
“he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, 82 and
renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Ti 3:6).
Third, the doctrine of the Trinity is a foundational
doctrine because it is by the distinctive operations of the
Holy Three that our varied needs are supplied. Do we not
need “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ”? Is not our most
urgent experimental requirement to come to Him
constantly and draw from the fullness of grace that is
treasured up for us in Him? (John 1:16). If we would obtain
“grace to help in time of need,” then we must go to that
throne on which the Mediator sits. And do we not also
need “the love of God,” that is, fresh manifestations of it,
new apprehensions thereof? Are we not bidden to keep
ourselves “in the love of God”? (Jude 21). And do we not
equally need “the communion of the Holy Spirit”? What
would become of us if He did not renew day by day in the
inner man? (See 2Co 4:16; Eph 3:16). What would be our
prayer-life if He no longer helped “our infirmities” and
made “intercession for the saints according to the will of
God”? (Rom 8:26-27).
The Holy Trinity: Like the virgin birth of Christ and the
resurrection of our bodies, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity
is one of the mysteries of the faith. The first truth
presented to faith is the Being of the true and living God,
and this we know not from any discovery of reason but
because He has revealed it in His Word. The next grand
truth is that the one living and true God has made Himself
known to us under the threefold relation of Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit; and this we know on the same authority
as the first…Whenever we attempt to discuss the
revelation God has made of His three persons, we should
do so with bowed heads and reverent hearts, for the
ground we tread is ineffably83 holy. The subject is one of
transcendent sacredness for it concerns the infinitely
majestic and glorious One. For the whole of our
knowledge on this subject, we are entirely shut up to
what it has pleased God to reveal of Himself in His
Oracles. Science, philosophy, experience, observation, or
speculation cannot in this exalted sphere increase our
knowledge one iota.
Trinity in Unity: The divine Trinity is a Trinity in unity:
that is to say, there are not three Gods but three persons
as coexisting by essential union in the divine essence as
being the one true God. Those three persons are coequal
and co-glorious so that one is not before or after the
other, neither greater nor less than the other. It is in and
by Their covenant offices [that] They are manifested to
us, and it is our privilege and duty to believe and know
how these three persons stand committed to us and are
interested in us by the everlasting covenant; but we
cannot understand the mystery of Their subsistence. 84
Any teaching that does not equally honor all the persons
of the Godhead, distinctively and unitedly, is of no value
to the soul. As one has said, “There is not a vestige of
Christianity where the truth of the Trinity is not known,
and owned, and honored. Not a vestige of godliness in the
heart of any child of Adam where the Father, Son, and
Spirit do not officially dwell. There is not a clear view of
one doctrine of God’s grace to be obtained unless the
telescope, if I may so speak, the doctrine of the Trinity, is
applied to the eye of faith and all viewed there” 85…
In this benediction, the apostle invokes the Trinity as the
source of grace, love, and communion. Its unique features
must not be overlooked: the order is unusual, and the
names used informally. The Son is placed before the
Father. The divine persons are not here spoken of as the
Son, the Father, and the Spirit, but as the Lord Jesus
Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit. The reason for this is
because what we have in our text is not primarily a
confession of faith (as is Mat 28:19), nor a doxology (as is
Jude 24-25), but a benediction. A doxology is an ascription
of praise; a benediction is a word of blessing—the one
ascends from the heart of the saint to God, the other
descends from God to the saint…
 The Doctrine of the Trinity of Great Importance:
The Christian benediction therefore intimates that the
doctrine of the Trinity is one of great importance to the
existence and progress of vital godliness: that it is not a
subject of mere speculation, but one on which depends all
the communications of grace and peace to the saints. It is
a striking and solemn fact that those who reject the truth
of the Trinity are seldom known to even profess having
spiritual communion with God, but instead treat the same
as a species of enthusiasm and fanaticism, 86 as a perusal
of the writings of Unitarians will show. The benediction,
then, sums up the blessings of Christian privilege in the
three great words of the gospel: grace, love, communion.
Those three divine gifts are attributed to different persons
in the Godhead. Each takes precedence in His own
peculiar work, though we cannot trace the limits of such,
and must be careful lest we conceive of God as three
Gods rather than one. Each belongs to all. Grace is of God
and of the Spirit as well as of the Son. Love is of the Son
and Spirit as well as the Father. And our communion is
with the Father and the Son as well as with the Spirit.
Grace—a Great Word of the Gospel: “The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ.” Why distinctively ascribe grace to
Him if it is of God and the Spirit as well? Because in the
economy of redemption, all grace comes to us through
Him. The word grace is the special token of Paul in every
epistle: eight close with “the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you,” sometimes varying the formula to
“with your spirit.” Grace is one of the outstanding words
of the gospel…
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.” That is His
designation as the God-man Mediator. It includes and
indicates His divine nature: He is “the Lord,” yes, “the
Lord of lords.” His human nature: He is “Jesus.” His office:
He is “Christ,” the anointed One, the long-promised
Messiah, the Mediator. It is the favor of His divine person
clothed with our nature and made the Head of His people
that the apostle invokes for all his believing brethren. “His
grace be with you all.” That comes first in the benediction
because it is our initial need. “For ye know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for
your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty
might be rich” (2Co 8:9). There, it is His infinite
condescension in submitting to such a mean condition for
our sakes.
When He became incarnate, the only begotten of the
Father was beheld by His own as “full of grace and truth,”
and as the apostle added, “And of his fullness have all we
received, and grace for grace” (John 1:14, 16). Here, the
meaning of grace passes from an attribute of the divine
character to an active energy in the souls of the
redeemed. At the throne of grace, we “find grace to help
in time of need” (Heb 4:16). The heart is “established
with grace” (Heb 13:9), and by that grace we are enabled
to “serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear”
(Heb 12:28). It is in “the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2Ti
2:1) that we find our strength, and He assures us of its
competency to support us under all afflictions and
persecutions by the promise “My grace is sufficient for
thee” (2Co 12:9). Therefore, we are exhorted to “grow in
grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ” (2Pe 3:18). Those passages all speak of the divine
power in the soul as the operation of grace in connection
with the Lord Jesus Christ as its Fountain.
The Love of God: “And the love of God.” There are two
reasons why this comes second: because this is the order
both in the economy of redemption and in Christian
experience. First, it was the mediatorial grace or work of
Christ that procured the love of God for His people, which
turned away His wrath from them and reconciled Him to
them. Hence, it is referred to not as “the love of the
Father,” which never changed or diminished to His
people, but as the love or goodwill of God considered as
their Governor and Judge. Second, it is by the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ in saving us that we are brought to the
knowledge and enjoyment of the love of God. The love of
the Father is indeed the source and originating cause of
redemption, but that is not the particular love of God that
is here in view. The death of Christ as a satisfaction for
our sins was necessary in order to bring us to God and
into participation of His love. The manifestation of the
love of God toward us in the pardon of our sins and the
justification of our persons was conditioned on the
atoning blood.
 The Communion of the Holy Spirit: “And the
communion of the Holy Spirit.” As the grand design of
Christ’s work Godward was to appease His judicial wrath
and procure for us His love and favor, so the grand effect
saint-ward was the procuring of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Greek word may be rendered either “communion” or
“communication.” By the communication of the Holy
Spirit, we are regenerated, faith is given, holiness is
wrought in us. Life, light, love, and liberty are the special
benefits He bestows on us. Without the Spirit being
communicated to us we could never enter, personally and
experimentally, into the benefits of Christ’s mediation.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us…That the blessing of Abraham might
come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal 3:13-
14). Thus, the communicating of the Spirit to His people
was one of the chief objects of Christ’s death.
But the Greek also signifies the communion of the Holy
Spirit, a word that means “partnership, companionship.”
He shares with us the things of God. Grace tends to love,
and love to communion. Hence, we see again that the
order here is that of Christian experience. Only as grace is
consciously received and the love of God is realized in the
soul can there be any intelligent and real communion,
through Christ to God the Father and through both to the
abiding presence of the Comforter. This expression “the
communion of the Holy Spirit” shows He is a person, for it
is meaningless to talk of communion with an impersonal
principle or influence. United as He is in this verse with
“the Lord Jesus Christ and God,” it evidences Him to be a
divine person. Further, it denotes He is an object of
intercourse and converse, and hence we must be on our
guard against grieving Him (Eph 4:30). The separate
mention of each of the eternal Three teaches us that They
are to be accorded equal honor, glory, and praise from us.
What is signified by “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy
Ghost, be with you all?” It cannot mean less than a
consciousness of God’s presence. The apostle was not
praying for the gifts of grace, love, and communion apart
from the persons in whom alone they are to be found. He
requested that the presence of the triune God might be
realized in the souls of His people. The New Testament
teaches that the divine Three are equally present in the
heart of the believer. Speaking of the Spirit Christ said,
“He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you,” and of
Himself and the Father, “If a man love me, he will keep
my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come
unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:17, 23).
The Christian is indwelt by the triune God: the Lord Jesus
dwells in him as the source of all grace, God the Father
abides in him as the spring of all love, and the Holy Spirit
communes with him and energizes him for all spiritual
service.

From Studies in the Scriptures, available from Chapel

Library.

A. W. Pink (1886-1952): Pastor, Itinerate Bible

teacher, author; born in Nottingham, England.
 A Profitable Doctrine
Wilhelmus á Brakel (1635-1711)

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit reveal themselves,

interact with, and exercise believers in an individual and
distinct manner. “My Father will love him, and we will
come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John
14:23). The Holy Spirit dwells in the godly as in a temple
(1Co 6:19). From all this, it should be evident that God
cannot be served except as being Triune in persons, and
that those who honor and serve Him as such are the truly
godly in this life and will experience salvation hereafter.
Thus, this truth is most profitable and essential…As we
seek to demonstrate how one may profit from this
mystery, we shall follow the order of the divine persons.
First,
God the father is viewed by believers as the origin of
all things, and thus also of their salvation. They may
perceive that He has chosen them from eternity to
become the objects of His eternal love, to exalt them, and
to make them partakers of an eternal and
incomprehensible salvation; and that all is of Him,
through Him, and unto Him. Secondly, they perceive how
the Father has appointed His only-begotten and beloved
Son to be Surety for the elect in order to make known to
men and angels His perfect righteousness,
incomprehensible mercy, wisdom, freeness in the
dispensing of grace, and wondrous benevolence—the
purpose of this revelation being to enhance their
experience of salvation. Thirdly, they perceive that the
Father in order to accomplish that purpose has created
the world, and has decreed that man, due to his own
fault, would fall into sin. By His providence, He maintains
and governs everything for the benefit and profit of His
elect, whom He has appointed to be the inheritors or
possessors of the entire world. Fourthly, they perceive
that the Father, according to the Counsel of Peace, 87 has
sent His Son into the world to assume the human nature,
to suffer and die as Surety, 88 to place Him under the Law
in order to satisfy the Father’s justice by His Son’s perfect
obedience, and thus deliver the elect from guilt and
punishment, granting them a right unto eternal life.
Fifthly, they perceive that the Father sends forth His Holy
Spirit into the hearts of the elect to illuminate and
regenerate them, to lead them to Christ, unite them to
Christ by faith, and in the way of holiness lead them to
glory. Sixthly, they perceive that the Father receives them
as His children and heirs, and consequently loves and
cares for them as His children. Such reflection produces in
the believer a childlike frame that causes the soul to sink
away in humility. How the soul then rejoices and receives
liberty to exclaim, “Abba, Father” (Gal 4:6)! The soul will
commit himself and his entire case into the hands of the
Father, entrusting all to Him, living out of His hand,
bringing all his needs to Him as his Father, making all his
desires known to Him, being willing to obey his Father and
to serve Him according to His will…
In considering God the son, first, believers perceive
Him to be the only qualified Surety to make the elect sons
and daughters—children of the Father—while in
amazement, they reflect upon the unsearchable wisdom
of God in appointing such a qualified person to be Surety.
Secondly, they perceive the wondrous love of the Son
towards man, Who gave Himself in the eternal Counsel of
Peace to be Surety in order to accomplish the great work
of redemption. Thirdly, they perceive how He humbled
Himself in the fullness of time, taking upon Himself the
form of a servant and assuming their nature, not being
ashamed to call them brethren, in order that they might
enjoy communion and fellowship with Him. Fourthly, they
perceive how He out of pure and voluntary love has taken
their sins upon Himself, doing so as if He had personally
committed them. They perceive how He Himself, with all
willingness, bore the punishment that they deserved,
thereby fully satisfying divine justice and reconciling them
to God. Fifthly, they perceive that He has united them to
Himself as members of a spiritual body, He being the
Head and they the members, He being the Bridegroom
and they His bride, so that in Him, the Son, they are sons
and daughters. Sixthly, they perceive that He thus brings
them to God, presenting them to the Father, saying,
“Behold I and the children which God hath given me”
(Heb 2:13). Here is the fountain of salvation, and here all
the perfections of God manifest themselves in an entirely
different and more glorious manner than in the work of
creation and providential maintenance…
God the holy spirit is for believers the One Who, in a
manifold and merciful manner, applies and makes them
partakers of all that the Father has eternally decreed for
their benefit, as well as all that which the Son has merited
for them…The Father and the Son send forth the Holy
Spirit into the hearts of believers, and the Holy Spirit
dwells in them as in a temple. Prior to their regeneration,
the elect are by nature as all other men, “sensual, having
not the Spirit” (Jude 19). As it is only the Spirit Who
makes alive, they are dead in sins and trespasses, living
in total separation from God, having neither perception of
their sinfulness and damnable state nor of salvation and
spiritual life, and having no desire for these things. That
which is of the earth is the focus of all their soul’s activity
and of all the members of their body. All their religious
activity is of a mechanical nature, in order to quiet their
conscience. They rest in what they have done and hate all
that which resembles light, spirituality, and true godliness
—especially when their encounter with them is too close
for comfort.
However, when the moment of God’s good pleasure
arrives for the elect, God grants them the Holy Spirit, Who
illuminates and regenerates them and by faith makes
them partakers of Christ and all His benefits. “And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal 4:6); “Ye
have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15); “Now we have received…the
Spirit which is of God” (1Co 2:12). At this point we must
consider in what manner or in what regard believers
receive the Holy Spirit.
Question: Do believers receive the gifts of the Spirit, or
is the person Himself communicated to them?
 Answer: (1) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the
believer is not just a mere presence, such as is true for
the omnipresence89 of His Godhead. (2) Neither is it an
external relationship, viewing them as children of God
and the objects of His operation. (3) Nor is it a
communication of His gifts, such as faith, hope, and
charity, etc. (4) Rather, it is the person Himself Who is
given to believers, dwelling in them in a manner that is
incomprehensible90 and inexpressible to us. This presence
infinitely exceeds the limits of their person, and yet [it] is
in an extraordinary manner within them.
First, this becomes evident in those texts where the Holy
Spirit is expressly said not only to be given to them, but
also to dwell in them. “And I will pray the Father, and he
shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with
you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall
be in you” (John 14:16-17). “The Spirit of Christ which was
in them” (1Pe 1:11). “Know ye not…that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you?” (1Co 3:16).
Evasive Argument: The gifts of the Holy Spirit are
identified as being the Holy Spirit Himself (Act 10:44-45).
Answer: (1) In those places where the Holy Spirit is
mentioned, it is not always and everywhere to be
understood as being the same as His gifts. Thus, this
argument has no clout, for it must then be shown that in
the aforementioned and similar texts, the reference is to
gifts and not to the person Himself. (2) A clear distinction
is made between the Spirit Himself, Who is given to God’s
children, and His gifts. These gifts neither teach, lead,
comfort, bear witness, regenerate, nor work faith; but it is
the person, the Holy Spirit Himself, Who works and
imparts these things to each person as is pleasing to Him.
(3) The gifts of the Spirit are also given to reprobates 91
(Heb 6:4). Nevertheless, these gifts do not make the
person a partaker of Christ, as does the indwelling of the
Spirit. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of his” (Rom 8:9). Thus, it is confirmed that the person of
the Holy Spirit Himself dwells in the believer in a manner
that is inexpressible and yet consistent with God’s Being.
 Secondly, this indwelling is confirmed by such texts
where believers are called the temples of the Holy Ghost.
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1Co 3:16). “What? know
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not
your own?” (1Co 6:19). God Himself, and not His gifts,
dwelt in the temple at Jerusalem. “And I will dwell among
the children of Israel” (Exo 29:45); “In Salem also is his
tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion” (Psa 76:2);
“Thou that dwellest between the cherubims” (Psa 80:1).
Since the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer as He formerly
did in the temple, He Himself likewise, rather than His
gifts only, personally dwells in the believer.
Thirdly, believers have an infinite desire that can only
be satisfied with the Infinite One. The gifts of God are not
infinite, and thus a believer cannot be satisfied with them.
God Himself must be and is their portion, and they are
united to God in Christ and are made perfect in one (John
17:23). Thus, the believer does not merely have the gifts
of the Spirit, but he has the Spirit Himself.

From The Christian’s Reasonable Service, Vol. 1,

Reformation Heritage Books, used by permission,
www.heritagebooks.org.
 Communion with the Trinity
John Owen (1616-1683)

By nature, since the entrance of sin, no man hath any

communion with God. He is Light, we darkness; and what
communion hath light with darkness? He is life, we are
dead. He is love, and we are enmity; and what agreement
can there be between us? Men in such a condition have
neither Christ nor hope nor God in the world (Eph 2:12),
“being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them” (4:18). Now, two cannot walk
together unless they be agreed (Amo 3:3). Whilst there is
this distance between God and man, there is no walking
together for them in any fellowship or communion. Our
first interest in God was so lost by sin, as that there was
left unto us (in ourselves) no possibility of a recovery. As
we had deprived ourselves of all power for a return, so
God had not revealed any way of access unto Himself; or
that He could, under any consideration, be approached
unto by sinners in peace. Not any work that God had
made, not any attribute that He had revealed, could give
the least light into such a dispensation…
But now in Christ we have boldness and access with
confidence to God (Eph 3:12). This boldness and access
with confidence the saints of old were not acquainted
with. By Jesus Christ alone, then, on all considerations as
to being and full manifestation, is this distance taken
away. He hath consecrated for us a new and living way
(the old being quite shut up), “through the vail, that is to
say, his flesh” (Heb 10:20); and “through him we have
access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph 2:18). “Ye who
sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of
Christ, for he is our peace” (vv. 13-14)…Upon this new
[base] and foundation, by this new and living way, are
sinners admitted unto communion with God, and have
fellowship with Him. And truly, for sinners to have
fellowship with God, the infinitely holy God, is an
astonishing dispensation. To speak a little of it in
general…
Communion is the mutual communication of such good
things as wherein the persons holding that communion
are delighted, [based] upon some union between them.
So it was with Jonathan and David: their souls clave to
one another (1Sa 20:17) in love. There was the union of
love between them; and then they really communicated
all issues of love mutually. In spiritual things, this is more
eminent:92 those who enjoy this communion have the
most excellent union for the foundation of it; and the
issues of that union, which they mutually communicate,
are the most precious and eminent…
Our communion, then, with God consisteth in His
communication of Himself unto us, with our return unto
Him of that which He requireth and accepteth, flowing
from that union that we have with Him in Jesus Christ.
And it is twofold: (1) Perfect and complete, in the full
fruition of His glory and total giving up of ourselves to
Him, resting in Him as our utmost end; which we shall
enjoy when we see Him as He is, and, (2) initial and
incomplete, in the first-fruits and dawnings of that
perfection that we have here in grace, which only I shall
handle.
It is, then, I say, of that mutual communication in giving
and receiving, after a most holy and spiritual manner,
which is between God and the saints while they walk
together in a covenant of peace, ratified 93 in the blood of
Jesus, whereof we are to treat. 94 And this we shall do, if
God permit; in the meantime praying the God and Father
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who hath, of the
riches of His grace, recovered us from a state of enmity
into a condition of communion and fellowship with
Himself, [so] that both He that writes and they that read
the words of His mercy may have such a taste of His
sweetness and excellence therein as to be stirred up to a
farther longing after the fullness of His salvation and the
eternal [enjoyment] of Him in glory…
That the saints have distinct communion with the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (that is, distinctly with
the Father, and distinctly with the Son, and distinctly with
the Holy Spirit), and in what the peculiar appropriation 95
of this distinct communion unto the several persons doth
consist, must, in the first place, be made manifest.
The apostle tells us, “For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost: and these three are one” (1Jo 5:7). In heaven they
are and bear witness to us. And what is it that they bear
witness unto? Unto the sonship of Christ and the salvation
of believers in His blood. Of the carrying on of that, both
by blood and water, justification 96 and sanctification,97 is
he there treating. Now, how do they bear witness
hereunto? Even as three—as three distinct witnesses.
When God witnesseth concerning our salvation, surely it
is incumbent98 on us to receive His testimony. And as He
beareth witness, so are we to receive it. Now this is done
distinctly. The Father beareth witness, the Son beareth
witness, and the Holy Spirit beareth witness; for they are
three distinct witnesses. So, then, are we to receive their
several testimonies; and in doing so we have communion
with them severally. For in this giving and receiving of
testimony consists no small part of our fellowship with
God…
The apostle, speaking of the distribution of gifts and
graces unto the saints, ascribes them distinctly, in
respect of the fountain of their communication, unto the
distinct persons. “There are diversities of gifts, but the
same Spirit” (1Co 12:4-6)—“that one and the selfsame
Spirit” (12:11), that is, the Holy Ghost. “And there are
differences of administrations, but the same Lord” (12:5),
the same Lord Jesus. “And there are diversities of
operations, but it is the same God, etc.” (12:6), even the
Father (Eph 4:6). So graces and gifts are bestowed and so
are they received.
And not only in the emanation 99 of grace from God and
the illapses100 of the Spirit on us, but also in all our
approaches unto God is the same distinction observed.
“For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father” (Eph 2:18). Our access unto God (wherein we
have communion with Him) is “through Christ,” “in the
Spirit,” and “unto the Father”—the persons being here
considered as engaged distinctly unto the
accomplishment of the counsel of the will of God revealed
in the gospel.
Sometimes, indeed, there is express mention made only
of the Father and the Son: “Our fellowship is with the
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1Jo 1:3). The
particle “and” is both distinguishing and uniting. Also John
14:23, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my
Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and
make our abode with him.” It is in this communion
wherein Father and Son do make Their abode with the
soul. Sometimes the Son only is spoken of, as to this
purpose: “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto
the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1Co 1:9).
And, “If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me”
(Rev 3:20)…Sometimes the Spirit alone is mentioned.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all”
(2Co 13:14). This distinct communion, then, of the saints
with the Father, Son, and Spirit is very plain in the
Scripture...
The way and means, then, on the part of the saints
whereby in Christ they enjoy communion with God, are all
the spiritual and holy [actions] and outgoings of their
souls in those graces and by those ways, wherein both
the moral and instituted worship of God doth consist.
Faith, love, trust, joy, etc., are the natural or moral
worship of God, whereby those in whom they are have
communion with Him. Now, these are either immediately
acted on God, and not tied to any ways or means
outwardly manifesting themselves; or else they are
farther drawn forth in solemn prayer and praises,
according unto the way that He hath appointed. That the
Scripture doth distinctly assign all these unto the Father,
Son, and Spirit…is that which, to give light to the
assertion in hand, I shall farther declare by particular
instances:
1. For the Father. Faith, love, obedience, etc., are
peculiarly101 and distinctly yielded by the saints unto Him;
and He is peculiarly manifested in those ways as acting
peculiarly towards them, which should draw them forth
and stir them up thereunto. He gives testimony unto and
beareth witness of His Son, “This is the witness of God
which he hath testified of his Son” (1Jo 5:9). In His bearing
witness, He is an object of belief. When He gives
testimony (which He doth as the Father because He doth
it of the Son), He is to be received in it by faith. And this is
affirmed: “He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the
witness in himself” (1Jo 5:10). To believe on the Son of
God in this place is to receive the Lord Christ as the Son,
the Son given unto us for all the ends 102 of the Father’s
love, upon the credit of the Father’s testimony; and,
therefore, therein is faith immediately acted on the
Father. So it follows in the next words, “He that believeth
not God” (that is, the Father, Who bears witness to the
Son) “hath made him a liar.” “Ye believe in God,” saith
our Savior, that is, the Father as such, for He adds,
“Believe also in me” (John 14:1) or, “Believe you in God;
believe also in me.” God, as the prima Veritas,103 upon
Whose authority is founded and whereunto all divine faith
is ultimately resolved, is not to be considered personally,
as peculiarly expressive of any person, but essentially,
comprehending the whole deity…But in this particular, it
is the testimony and authority of the Father (as such)
therein, of which we speak, and whereupon faith is
distinctly fixed on Him, which, if it were not so, the Son
could not add, “Believe also in me.”
The like also is said of love. “If any man love the world,
the love of the Father is not in him” (1Jo 2:15), that is, the
love that we bear to Him, not that which we receive from
Him. The Father is here placed as the object of our love,
in opposition to the world, which takes up our affections
—“the love of the Father.” The Father denotes the matter
and object, not the efficient cause, of the love inquired
after. And this love of Him as a Father is that which He
calls His “honor” (Mal 1:6).
Farther: these graces as acted in prayer and praises and
as clothed with instituted worship are peculiarly directed
unto Him. “Ye call on the Father” (1Pe 1:17). “For this
cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is
named” (Eph 3:14-15). Bowing the knee compriseth the
whole worship of God, both that which is moral in the
universal obedience He requireth, and those peculiar
ways of carrying it on that are appointed by Him: “Unto
me,” saith the LORD, “every knee shall bow, every tongue
shall swear” (Isa 45:23). Which, verses 24-25, He
declareth to consist in their acknowledging of Him for
righteousness and strength. Yea, it seems sometimes to
comprehend the orderly subjection of the whole creation
unto His sovereignty. In this place of the apostle, it hath a
far more restrained acceptation and is but a figurative
expression of prayer, taken from the most expressive
bodily posture to be used in that duty. This he farther
manifests, declaring at large what his aim was and
whereabouts his thoughts were exercised in that bowing
of his knees (Eph 3:16-17).
The workings, then, of the Spirit of grace in that duty
are distinctly directed to the Father as such, as the
fountain of the deity and of all good things in Christ—as
the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And therefore the
same apostle doth, in another place, expressly conjoin,
and yet as expressly distinguish, the Father and the Son
in directing his supplications: “God himself even our
Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto
you” (1Th 3:11). The like precedent also have you of
thanksgiving: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ…” (Eph 1:3-4). I shall not add those very
many places wherein the several particulars that do
concur unto that whole divine worship…are distinctly
directed to the person of the Father.
2. It is so also in reference unto the Son: “Ye
believe in God,” saith Christ, “believe also in me” (John
14:1). “Believe also, act faith distinctly on Me; faith
divine, supernatural—that faith whereby you believe in
God, that is, the Father.” There is a believing of Christ,
namely, that He is the Son of God, the Savior of the
world. [It] is that whose neglect our Savior so threatened
unto the Pharisees, “If ye believe not that I am he, ye
shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). In this sense, faith is
not immediately fixed on the Son, being only an owning
of Him—that is, the Christ to be the Son—by closing with
the testimony of the Father concerning Him.
 But there is also a believing on Him, called “Believing on
the name of the Son of God” (1Jo 5:13; so also John 9:36)
—yea, the distinct affixing of faith, affiance,104 and
confidence on the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, as the
Son of God, is most frequently pressed. “God”—that is,
the Father—“so loved the world…that whosoever
believeth in him”—that is, the Son—“should not perish.”
The Son, Who is given of the Father, is believed on. “He
that believeth on him is not condemned” (3:18). “He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (3:36). “This is
the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath
sent” (John 4:29, 40; 1Jo 5:10). The foundation of the
whole is laid: “That all men should honour the Son, even
as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son
honoureth not the Father which hath sent him” (John
5:23)…For love, I shall only add that solemn apostolic
benediction, “Grace be with all them that love our Lord
Jesus Christ in sincerity” (Eph 6:24)—that is, with divine
love, the love of religious worship, which is the only
incorrupt love of the Lord Jesus.
Farther: that faith, hope, and love, acting themselves in
all manner of obedience and appointed worship, are
peculiarly due from the saints and distinctly directed unto
the Son, is abundantly manifest from that solemn
doxology: “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from
our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and
dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (Rev 1:5-6). Which yet
is set forth with more glory: “The four living creatures,
and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb,
having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of
odours, which are the prayers of saints” (5:8); and “Every
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under
the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in
them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory,
and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (5:13-14). The Father
and the Son (He that sits upon the throne and the Lamb)
are held out jointly, yet distinctly, as the adequate object
of all divine worship and honor forever and ever. And
therefore Stephen, in his solemn dying invocation, 105
fixeth his faith and hope distinctly on Him, “Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit,” and, “Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge” (Act 7:59-60)—for he knew that the Son of man
had power to forgive sins also. And this worship of the
Lord Jesus, the apostle makes the discriminating
character of the saints: “With all,” saith he, “that in every
place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both
theirs and ours” (1Co 1:2), that is, with all the saints of
God. And invocation generally comprises the whole
worship of God. This, then, is the due of our Mediator,
though as God, as the Son, not as Mediator.
3. Thus also is it in reference unto the Holy Spirit
of grace: The closing of the great sin of unbelief is still
described as an opposition unto and a resisting of that
Holy Spirit. And you have distinct mention of the love of
the Spirit (Rom 15:30). The apostle also peculiarly directs
his supplication to Him in that solemn benediction, “The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all” (2Co
13:14). And such benedictions are originally
supplications.106 He is likewise entitled unto all instituted
worship from the appointment of the administration of
baptism in His name (Mat 28:19)…
Now, of the things that have been delivered this is the
sum: there is no grace whereby our souls go forth unto
God, no act of divine worship yielded unto Him, no duty or
obedience performed, but they are distinctly directed
unto Father, Son, and Spirit. Now, by these and such like
ways as these, do we hold communion with God.

From “Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and

Holy Ghost” in The Works of John Owen, ed. W. H. Goold,
Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1862).

John Owen (1616-1683): Congregational pastor,

author, and theologian; born in Stadhampton,
Oxfordshire, UK.
 Trinitarian Salvation
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up

straightway out of the water: and, lo, the
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw
the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and
lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven,
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased.—Matthew 3:16-17
Let us at once try to learn the first lesson from the text,
which relates to the co-working of the Trinity in the matter
of our salvation.
There are some who seem to suppose that Jesus Christ
is our Savior to the exclusion of God the Father and of
God the Holy Ghost, but this is a most erroneous idea. It
is true that we are saved by the precious blood of Christ,
but it is equally true that God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit have had their share in the great work of our
salvation. In order that we might not fall into the error in
which some have been entangled, it pleased God to give
us, at the very beginning of Christ’s public ministry, a
very distinct intimation that He did not come alone and
that He did not undertake the work of our redemption
apart from the other adorable persons of the ever-blessed
Trinity.
Try to picture to yourselves the scene that our text
describes: there is Jesus Christ, Who has just been
baptized in Jordan by John; and John bears witness that
He is the Son of God because the sign from heaven for
which he had been bidden to look had been given (John
1:33). As Jesus comes up out of the water, the Spirit of
God descends upon Him in a visible shape, in appearance
like a dove, and rests upon Him. John says that “it abode
upon him” (John 1:32), as though the Spirit was
thenceforth to be His continual Companion; and, truly, it
was so. At the same time that the dove descended and
lighted upon Christ, there was heard a voice from heaven,
saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.” This was the voice of God the Father, Who did
not reveal Himself in a bodily shape, but uttered
wondrous words such as mortal ears had never before
heard. The Father revealed Himself, not to the eye as the
Spirit did, but to the ear; and the words He spake clearly
indicated that it was God the Father bearing witness to
His beloved Son. So that the entrance of Christ upon His
public ministry on earth was the chosen opportunity for
the public manifestation of the intimate union between
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
Now, sinner, from this day forward, if you have never
done so before, think humbly, reverently, and lovingly of
all the three persons of the most blessed Trinity in unity.
Bless the Son of God for becoming man in order that He
might redeem us from destruction. He left His glory in
heaven and was made in the likeness of men that He
might suffer in our stead, as the Lamb of God’s Passover,
and that we might shelter beneath His sprinkled blood,
and so escape the sword of vengeance. Do you know
that, when Christ was baptized, He gave, as it were, a
picture of His great work of redemption? He said to John,
“Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” (Mat
3:15), by which I understand, not that He fulfilled all
righteousness by being baptized, but that His baptism
was a picture or emblem of the fulfilment of all
righteousness.
What was done with Christ when He was baptized? Why,
first, He was regarded as one Who was dead, and
therefore He was buried beneath the waters of Jordan. He
thus set forth by a most significant symbol the fact that
He had come to earth to be obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross, and that in due time He would
actually die and be really buried, as now He was
submerged beneath the yielding wave in a metaphorical
burial. But baptism does not consist in merely plunging
the person into the water: he must be lifted out again;
otherwise he would be drowned, not baptized. So the
Savior, when He rose up out of the water, set forth His
own resurrection. By His baptism, He figuratively said, “I
shall die for sinners, I shall rise again for sinners, and I
shall go back to heaven to plead for sinners. My death will
put away their offences, and my resurrection will
complete their justification.”
Go ye, who long for salvation, and by faith look to the
Savior dying on the cross at Calvary: see Him buried in
Joseph’s tomb, see Him rise the third day, and after forty
days see Him ascend to heaven leading captivity captive.
His dying, His burial, His rising, His ascension—these are
the fulfilment of all righteousness, and it is by these that
you must be saved. It is not your being baptized that can
save you; it is Christ’s being baptized for you with that
baptism of blood when He poured out His soul unto death
that you might live forever. It is not your suffering, but His
suffering that avails for your salvation; it is not your being
or your doing that is the secret of blessing, but it is His
being and His doing on which you must depend for
everything. Trust in Jesus Christ, and you shall find
salvation in Him.
Now I want you to look with humbly grateful eyes
to God the Holy Ghost. You remember how Jesus Christ
applied to Himself the words He read in the synagogue at
Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he
hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach
the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). It was
the Spirit of God Who gave success to Jesus Christ’s
ministry; and if you, dear friend, would be saved, it is only
the Holy Spirit Who can take away from you the heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh.
I pray you to think with holy reverence of that mighty,
mysterious Being Who works in human hearts and molds
them according to the will of God. By nature, you are
spiritually dead, and only the Spirit of God can give you
spiritual life. By nature, you are spiritually blind, and only
the Spirit of God can give you spiritual sight. Even the
work of Christ on the cross does not avail for you until the
Holy Spirit takes of the things of Christ and reveals them
unto you. You must look to Christ, or He will not save you.
You must trust in Christ, or His precious blood will not be
applied to you. But you will never look to Him or trust in
Him unless the Father, Who sent Him, shall draw you to
do so by His Spirit effectually working in you. When we
are thinking and speaking of the Holy Spirit, let us always
feel as if we must put off our shoes from our feet; for the
place whereon we stand is peculiarly holy. You remember
how solemnly Christ warns us as to the consequences of
even speaking against the Holy Ghost: “Whosoever
speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be
forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy
Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world,
neither in the world to come” (Mat 12:32).
Whenever we mention the name of the Holy Spirit, let
us do it with holy awe and reverence, remembering that it
is the Spirit that quickeneth, it is the Spirit that
instructeth, it is the Spirit that sanctifieth, 107 it is the Spirit
that preserveth, it is the Spirit that maketh us [fit] to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. So, unto
the ever-blessed Spirit of God as well as unto the well-
beloved Son of God be glory and honor, praise and power,
forever and ever.
With equal reverence and with equal awe let us
also think of God the Father. What does the Father
here say concerning Christ? First, He calls Him His Son.
There has been much disputing about how Christ can be
equal with the Father and equally eternal, and yet be the
Son of the Father. This is a great deep into which you and
I, dear friends, will do well not to pry. We usually speak of
Christ being the Son of the Father by what is called
“eternal generation.”108 I confess that there is a mystery
here that I can neither understand nor explain; but as the
Father calls Him His Son, I unhesitatingly believe that He
is what the Scripture constantly calls Him, “the Son of
God.” In our text, we find that the Father not only calls
Christ His Son, but He says, “This is my beloved Son.”
What wondrous love there must be in the heart of each
one of the divine persons in the sacred Trinity towards
each of the others! How blessedly they must look upon
one another with divine benignity 109 and complacency!
There never could be any diversity in their interests; for
they are one in heart, one in purpose, one in every
respect, even as Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.”
Now, sinner, the point to which I want specially to direct
your thoughts is this—that God not only calls Christ His
Son, and His beloved Son, but that He says He is well
pleased with Him; and this concerns you in that, if you are
so united to Christ as to be one with Him, God will also be
well pleased with you for His dear Son’s sake. But can a
sinner ever be pleasing to God? Not in himself, apart from
Christ, but all who are in Christ are “accepted in the
Beloved” (Eph 1:6). His Father is so pleased with Him that
all whom He represents are pleasing unto God for His
sake. “But,” asks one, “how can I be in Christ?” My dear
friend, if you are one of the Lord’s chosen, you are
already in Christ in God’s eternal purpose; but the way in
which you must experimentally get into Christ is by true
faith in Him. To trust in Jesus is to be in Jesus. To rely upon
the atoning sacrifice110 of Christ is to be one with Christ.
Faith is the uniting bond that binds together the Christ in
Whom we believe and those who believe in Him. If you
are truly trusting in Christ, God looks upon you as a part
of Christ’s mystical body, and He is well pleased with you
for Christ’s sake.
Thus, then, you have the Son suffering for you, the Spirit
applying to you the merit of His atoning sacrifice, and the
Father well pleased with you because you are trusting in
His beloved Son. Or, to put the truth in another form, the
Father gives the great gospel feast, the Son is the feast,
and the Spirit not only brings the invitations, but He also
gathers the guests around the table. Or, to use another
metaphor, God the Father is the fountain of grace, God
the Son is the channel of grace, and God the Holy Spirit is
the cup from which we drink of the flowing stream. I wish
that I could really make you see Jesus Christ standing by
Jordan’s brink as He came up out of the water after He
had been baptized by John, and the Spirit of God
descending and lighting upon Him, and that I could make
you hear the voice of the Father saying, “This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” If I could do
this, all I should have to add would be John’s message:
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world.” There is eternal life for everyone who truly
looks unto Him by faith.
From a sermon published on Thursday, April 18, 1912, at
the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892): Influential English

Baptist preacher; born at Kelvedon, Essex, England.
Beloved friends, here you have the Trinity,
and there is no salvation apart from the Trinity.
It must be the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. “All things that the Father hath are
mine,” saith Christ, and the Father hath all
things. They were always His; they are still His;
they always will be His; and they cannot
become ours until they change ownership,
until Christ can say, “All things that the Father
hath are mine”; for it is by virtue of the
representative character of Christ standing as
the surety of the covenant that the “all things”
of the Father are passed over to the Son that
they might be passed over to us. “It pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;
and of his fullness have all we received” (Col
1:19). But yet we are so dull that, though the
conduit-pipe is laid on to the great fountain, we
cannot get at it. We are lame; we cannot reach
thereto; and in comes the third Person of the
divine unity, even the Holy Spirit, and He
receives of the things of Christ, and then
delivers them over to us. So we do actually
receive, through Jesus Christ, by the Spirit,
what is in the Father…Give me a gospel with
the Trinity, and the might of hell cannot prevail
against it.—Charles H. Spurgeon
 Endnotes

[1] revelation – the 66 books of the Bible and the

illumination of the Holy Spirit.
[2] analogous – bearing some resemblance.
[3] transcendently – in a manner that goes beyond
the range of human experience.
[4] rational – having the mental power of reason.
[5] See FGB 230, The Deity of Christ, 219, The
Person of Christ, and 227, The Atonement,
available from Chapel Library.
[6] inextricably – beyond all possibility of being
disentangled.
[7] monotheism – the belief that there is only one
God.
[8] polytheism – belief in or worship of many gods.
[9] intuitive – feeling something to be true without
the need for conscious reasoning.
[10] posits – affirms the existence of.
[11] See A. W. Pink, The Attributes of God, available
from Chapel Library.
[12] Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (1851-1921)
– Presbyterian theologian at Princeton Seminary
1887-1921.
[13] trinal – threefold; consisting in three parts.
[14] propitiation – sin offering that turns away
wrath; appeasement.
[15] Benjamin B. Warfield, The Works of Benjamin B.
Warfield: Studies in Theology, Vol. 9, 113.
[16] Some believers have difficulty understanding
why theologians use terms that are not found in
Scripture. “Part of the problem for the ordinary
Christian may be that in its debates and struggles,
the ancient Church was forced to use extrabiblical
terms to defend biblical concepts. This was
necessary because heretics misused the Bible to
support their erroneous ideas. Athanasius [c. 296-
374] provides a glimpse of what happened at the
Council of Nicaea (ad 325), when the assembled
bishops rejected the claim of Arius that the Son
was not eternal, but was created by God, Who
thereby became His Father. Originally, the
statement was proposed to the Council that the
Son came “from God.” This meant that He was not
from some other source, nor was He a creature.
However, those who sympathized with Arius [see
Arians below] agreed to the phrase, since in their
eyes, all creatures came from God. Consequently,
the council was forced to look for a word that
excluded all possibility of an Arian interpretation.
Biblical language could not resolve the issue, for
the conflict was over the meaning of biblical
language in the first place.” (Robert Letham, The
Holy Trinity, 1-2)
[17] trinity – from the Latin trinitas, which means
“threeness.” Trinity means “tri-unity” or “three-in-
oneness.”
[18] subsistence – technical word that means a
personal mode of existence of the divine
substance. Therefore, in the Godhead, there is
only one substance (essence) but three
subsistences (persons).
[19] inexplicable – unable to be explained or
understood.
[20] Arians – followers of Arius, a bishop of
Alexandria (ad 256-336), an antitrinitarian who
 taught that the Son is the first and greatest of
created beings, but not equal to the Father in his
attributes: While theologians usually understand
divine and deity as synonymous, Arius described
the Son as divine—“like God”—but not deity
—“truly God.” Jehovah’s Witnesses are an example
of modern day Arians.
[21] Sabellians – followers of Sabellius (early 3rd
century), a Roman theologian who denied the
Trinity, teaching that God is only one person Who
acted out three different roles—first as Father
(Creator), then as Son (Redeemer), and finally as
Spirit (Giver of regeneration and sanctification).
Sabellianism, also known as Monarchianism and
Modalism, laid the groundwork for the later
heresies of Socinianism and Unitarianism (see
footnotes 7 & 8). Oneness Pentecostals are an
example of modern day Sabellians.
[22] Socinians – followers of Faustus (1539-1604)
and Laelius Socinus (1525-1562), 16th century
Italian theologians that denied the deity of Christ
and that the cross brought forgiveness of sins.
[23] Unitarians – antitrinitarian movement rooted in
the ancient heresies of Sabellianism and Arianism.
Unitarianism grew rapidly in 16th century Hungary
and Poland; but is now largely humanistic and
antichristian, rejecting the Trinity, the deity of
Christ, the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit,
the Bible as God’s Word, and eternal hell.
[24] begotten – this refers to the eternal generation
of the Son and the eternal procession of the Spirit.
Begotten refers to the eternal relation between the
Second Person (the Son) to the First Person (the
Father) of the Trinity: it is “the eternal and
changeless activity in the Godhead by which the
Father produces the Son without division of
essence and by which the Second Person of the
 Trinity is identified as an individual substance
(person) of the divine essence.” (Richard Muller,
“generatio,” Dictionary of Latin and Greek
Theological Terms, 127) Similarly, the Spirit
proceeds from the Father and the Son.
[25] only begotten – many scholars today reject
the term only begotten (Greek = monogenēs),
preferring instead “only,” “unique,” or “one and
only.” For a defense of retaining the term “only
begotten” see Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity
(Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 2004), 383-386;
John M. Frame, The Doctrine of God (Phillipsburg,
N.J.: P&R Publishing, 2002), 710-711; Roger
Beckwith, “The Calvinist Doctrine of the Trinity,”
Churchman 115 (2001), 308-16; F. F. Bruce, The
Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984)
65n26.
[26] See FGB 230, The Deity of Christ, available from
Chapel Library.
[27] apostolic benediction – in this context, the
apostle Paul’s prayer for God’s blessing.
[28] three Gods – this is the error known as
tritheism.
[29] concurred – combined in action; cooperated.
[30] Valentians or Valentinians – followers of the
heretical Egyptian theologian Valentinus (ca. 136-
165), founder of a Gnostic sect. Gnosticism (from
Greek gnosis, meaning “knowledge”) was a group
of 2nd and 3rd century heresies that taught escape
from the material world through gaining secret
knowledge. Valentianism was a major movement.
[31] Anabaptists – the Greek preposition ana—
meaning “re”—was joined with “baptist” to
become Anabaptist, or “re-baptizer.” This was
originally a term of contempt applied to Christians
in the time of the Reformation, who rejected infant
 baptism and established churches based on
believers’ baptism. German, Swiss, Polish, Dutch,
and numerous other groups emerged, often with
widely different, and sometimes heretical,
theologies. Some, but not all, were antitrinitarian,
which is why the author mentions them here.
[32] Socinian Arminians – followers of the Dutch
theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609), born in
Oudewater, the Netherlands. He rejected the
Reformers’ understanding of predestination,
teaching instead that God’s predestination of
individuals was based on His foreknowledge of
their accepting or rejecting Christ by their own
free will. Socinian Arminians were antitrinitarian,
though Arminius and many of his followers were
not.
[33] incomprehensible – unable to be contained
within limits.
[34] essence and existence – when considering the
biblical revelation of the Trinity, one must
understand the distinction between God’s essence
(Greek = ousia) and His existence. Essence refers
to what God is in His nature; existence speaks of
the mode in which God’s nature expresses itself:
His essence is Spirit and His existence is in three
persons. From this arises the following definition:
Within the nature of the one God (essence), there
exist three coequal and coeternal persons, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (existence).
[35] tangible – what can be grasped by the mind or
dealt with as a fact.
[36] omnipotence – unlimited power; “The all-
powerfulness of God, His unlimited ability to act
according to His own perfect will.” (Cairns,
Dictionary of Theological Terms, 313)
[37] heretics – those who hold self-willed opinion(s)
 or doctrine(s) in opposition to biblical truth.
[38] pretext – false reason for doing something
usually in order to hide the real reason.
[39] incommunicable – incapable of being imparted
or shared.
[40] anthropomorphism – attributing a human
form, human characteristics, or human behavior to
nonhuman things; in this case, the eternal God.
[41] subsists – exists as a personal mode of
existence in the divine nature.
[42] These quotations deviate somewhat from the
KJV as á Brakel here gives a literal rendering of the
original Hebrew.
[43] Jehovah – The English name Jehovah appears
four times in the Old Testament of the KJV (Exo
6:3; Psa 83:18; Isa 12:2; 26:4) and three other
times as a compound: Jehovahjireh (Gen 22:14);
Jehovahnissi (Exo 17:15); and Jehovahshalom (Jdg
6:24). God’s name in the Hebrew Scriptures
consists of four consonants, YHWH or JHVH
(Hebrew = ‫)יהוה‬, commonly referred to as the
Tetragrammaton (“four letters”). The KJV
translates it LORD, which informs the reader that
God’s name is being used in the Hebrew. Modern
scholars prefer to use Yahweh instead of Jehovah,
although the Anchor Bible Dictionary says, “The
pronunciation of yhwh as Yahweh is a scholarly
guess.”
[44] coalesce – unite.
[45] periemchoresin/perichoresis – Greek term
used to describe the triune relationship between
each person of the Godhead, defined as co-
indwelling, co-inhering [permanent existing in one
another], and mutual interpenetration. Alister
McGrath says this “allows the individuality of the
persons to be maintained, while insisting that each
 person shares in the life of the other two. An
image often used to express this idea is that of a
‘community of being,’ in which each person, while
maintaining its distinctive identity, penetrates the
others and is penetrated by them.” (McGrath,
Christian Theology, 325)
[46] Richard Muller quotes the Decree for the
Jacobites (Syrian Church), which says that “the
unity of the Godhead is such that the persons are
‘wholly in’ one another—a perfect and complete
co-inherence or perichoresis—and that, therefore,
‘none precedes the other in eternity, none exceeds
the other in greatness, or excels the other in
power.’ ” (Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation
Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4: The Triunity of God,
57)
[47] According to Genesis 1:26, God said, “Let us
make man in our image, after our likeness.” What
do the plural verb (“let us”) and the plural pronoun
(“our”) mean? Some have suggested they are
plurals of majesty, a form of speech a king would
use in saying, for example, “We are pleased to
grant your request.” However, in Old Testament
Hebrew, there are no other examples of a monarch
using plural verbs or plural pronouns of himself in
such a “plural of majesty,” so this suggestion has
no evidence to support it. Another suggestion is
that God is here speaking to angels. But angels did
not participate in the creation of man, nor was
man created in the image and likeness of angels;
so this suggestion is not convincing. The best
explanation is that already in the first chapter of
Genesis, we have an indication of a plurality of
persons in God Himself. We are not told how many
persons, and we have nothing approaching a
complete doctrine of the Trinity, but it is implied
that more than one person is involved. (Grudem,
Systematic Theology, 227)
[48] inhere – exist essentially or permanently in.
[49] Decalogue – Ten Commandments.
[50] postulates – principles.
[51] theism – belief in a god or gods.
[52] See FGB 230, The Deity of Christ, available from
Chapel Library.
[53] prerogatives – exclusive privileges or rights.
[54] immutability – unchangeableness.
[55] omniscience – having infinite knowledge.
[56] omnipresence – present in all places at the
same time.
[57] ascriptions – assigning qualities or characters
to a person or thing.
[58] primeval – earliest ages of the history of the
world.
[59] antediluvians – persons that lived before
Noah’s flood.
[60] See FGB 202, The New Birth, available from
Chapel Library.
[61] See FGB 215, Sanctification.
[62] analogous – similar or equivalent.
[63] synthesis – combination of ideas into a
complex whole.
[64] immanent or ontological – the Trinity as it
exists necessarily and eternally, apart from
creation. It is, like God’s attributes, what God
necessarily is. (John M. Frame, The Doctrine of
God, 706)
[65] economic – the Trinity in its relation to creation,
including the specific roles played by the
Trinitarian persons throughout the history of
creation, providence, and redemption. (John M.
 Frame, The Doctrine of God, 706)
[66] innate – belonging to the essential nature of
something.
[67] substance – essence; Greek = ousia.
[68] opera ad extra – outward or external works of
God; “The activities and effects by which the
Trinity is manifested outwardly. They are the
following: (1) Creation, preservation, and
government of the universe. (2) Redemption. (3)
Inspiration, regeneration, and sanctification. The
first belongs officially and eminently to the Father;
the second to the Son; the third to the Holy Spirit.”
(W. G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 252)
[69] See FGB 207, Substitution, available from
Chapel Library.
[70] taint – trace of a bad or undesirable quality.
[71] Scripture presents a delicate balance
between the essence (ousia) of God and the
persons (hypostases) of the Godhead. Fullness
of being is in the Trinity itself: each member—
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—shares equally in
this fullness. This unity of the Trinity is
sometimes referred to as perichoresis or
circumincession. John Frame explains: “Even
though the three are distinct persons, they are
nevertheless intimately involved with one
another. This mutual involvement is called by
the English terms circumincession and
coinherence (by the Latin circumincessio and
the Greek perichōresis). This means that, first,
the Father is in the Son and the Son in Him
(John 10:38; 14:10-11) and, second, both
Father and Son are in the Spirit and the Spirit
in Them (Rom 8:9). Notice: it’s not that the
Father is the Son and so on but that the Father
 is in the Son.” (John M. Frame, Salvation
Belongs to the Lord, 34)
[72] Charles Hodge (1797-1878) – American
Presbyterian theologian at Princeton Seminary.
[73] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1,
445.
[74] prominence – importance.
[75] predicated – asserted or stated as a quality.
[76] supererogation – performance of more than
duty or circumstances require.
[77] William Brenton Greene (1893-1929) – Stuart
Professor, Relation of Philosophy and Science to
Christian Religion, Princeton Theological Seminary;
Student Course Notes: Princeton Theological
Seminary, 1924-1927; Christian Sociology, 1926.
[78] Mediator – a go-between; “It pleased God in
His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord
Jesus His only begotten Son, according to the
Covenant made between them both, to be the
Mediator between God and Man; the Prophet,
Priest and King; Head and Savior of His Church,
the heir of all things, and judge of the world: Unto
whom He did from all Eternity give a people to be
His seed, and to be by Him in time redeemed,
called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.” (1689
London Baptist Confession 8.1, available from
Chapel Library) See also FGB 183, Christ the
Mediator.
[79] subsists – having a substantial, real, or
independent existence.
[80] co-essential – having the same essence.
[81] everlasting covenant – Differing views exist
among those who believe in God’s eternal purpose
of salvation through the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Some believe that God’s eternal purpose is
 expressed in two covenants: (1) a Covenant of
Redemption, which is made in eternity among the
members of the Godhead, which is the foundation
for (2) a Covenant of Grace, which is made in
history between God and His elect (i.e., ,John
Owen, Thomas Goodwin, Charles Hodge, R. L.
Dabney, etc.). Of those who believe in the
Covenant of Redemption, some believe that it is
between the Father and the Son, while others
include all the members of the Trinity. However,
some believe that God’s eternal purpose is
expressed in only one Covenant of Grace, which
has an eternal aspect between the members of
the Trinity and an historical aspect between God
and His elect (i.e., Edmund Calamy, Thomas
Boston, John Brown of Haddington, John Gill, Hugh
Martin, Benjamin Keach, etc.).
[82] See FGB 202, The New Birth, available from
Chapel Library.
[83] ineffably – in a manner too great to be
described in words.
[84] subsistence – mode of existence of the divine
essence as a person.
[85] Joseph Irons, The Incarnation, delivered in Grove
Chapel, Camberwell, Lord’s Day Morning,
December 1, 1850.
[86] enthusiasm and fanaticism – the belief that
one receives direct, personal revelation from God
and the tendency to indulge in wild, extravagant
religious notion.
[87] Counsel of Peace – another term for the
Covenant of Redemption: see article 6, footnote 4.
[88] Surety – one who undertakes the debts of
another: Jesus paid our sin debt upon the cross.
[89] omnipresence – present in all places at the
same time.
[90] incomprehensible – impossible or very difficult
to understand.
[91] reprobates – unbelievers left in their sins and
abandoned by God to judgment.
[92] eminent – important; especially valuable.
[93] ratified – confirmed.
[94] treat – deal with; discuss.
[95] peculiar appropriation – particular obtaining.
[96] justification – Justification is an act of God’s
free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins and
accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the
righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received
by faith alone. (Spurgeon’s Catechism, Q. 32,
available from Chapel Library) See also FGB 187,
Justification.
[97] sanctification – Sanctification is the work of
God’s Spirit whereby we are renewed in the whole
man after the image of God and are enabled more
and more to die to sin, and live to righteousness.”
(Spurgeon’s Catechism, Q. 34)
[98] incumbent – necessary as an obligation or
duty.
[99] emanation – flowing forth.
[100] illapses – gentle sinkings in.
[101] peculiarly – especially.
[102] ends – purposes for which something is
designed.
[103] prima Veritas – prime or first truth.
[104] affiance – trust.
[105] invocation – calling upon God for help in
prayer
[106] supplications – earnest, humble requests or
 pleas in prayer.
[107] sanctification – Sanctification is the work of
God’s Spirit whereby we are renewed in the whole
man after the image of God and are enabled more
and more to die to sin, and live to righteousness.
(Spurgeon’s Catechism, Q. 34) See FGB 215,
Sanctification, available from Chapel Library.
[108] eternal generation – The relationship that
exists between the first and second persons of the
Trinity. God the Father is said to generate (or
“beget”) the Son eternally. In other words, the
Son’s identity as Son is defined eternally by His
relationship to the Father. Likewise, the Father is
eternally the Father by His relationship to the Son.
The “generation” of the Son is not to be confused
with physical conception or birth, whereby a
human father begets a son who did not previously
exist. In other words, the eternal generation of the
Son does not speak about the origin of the Son but
rather seeks to define the relationship of the Son
to the Father. (Grenz, Guretzki, Nordling, Pocket
Dictionary of the Theological Terms, 46-47)
[109] benignity – kindness and gentleness.
[110] See FGB 227, Atonement, available from
Chapel Library.
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